Just one week before their season opener, the Illinois Fighting Illini have fired football coach Tim Beckman amid allegations of influencing medical decisions and pressuring players to play hurt, athletic director Mike Thomas announced Friday.

Thomas issued a statement that said the dismissal was related to preliminary results of an external review into the allegations, which also included efforts to avoid reporting players' injuries.

Why am I an Illinois fan again?

Beckman was a bum on and off the field so long-term this is probably for the best. Cubitt is also a pretty decent interim head coaching option. The timing of this is just cataclysmic though. AD Mike Thomas should be probably be next.

Last edited by EOCF on Mon Sep 07, 2015 12:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.

For those who have not kept up on this situation. Illinois fired athletic director Mike Thomas earlier this week, but cleared him of any wrongdoing in connection to the scandal. The allegations against Beckman in the report are pretty damning.

Tulcard wrote:Illinois hires Tulsa University alum Lovie Smith as its' next head coach. Lovie probably could have gotten a better gig, but wish him well....

IMO, Lovie has been one of the most underrated NFL head coaches of the last decade. The guy took a team QB'd by Rex Grossman to the Super Bowl. Rex Grossman!

I don't know how he's going to translate to the college game, but I hope he finds success. And some loyalty.

Saw a tweet today that probably has a lot of truth in it.

Something like &quot;Everyone supports and loves Lovie, until his first 3 and out when everyone complains that they hired a defensive coach.&quot;

As a season ticket holder, I can confirm this lol.

Easily the biggest move Illinois football has made in my lifetime. With that fat contract, I really hope the alums still have the coin to pay a top-flight staff. Especially a high quality offensive coordinator.

CHAMPAIGN – Lovie Smith will be introduced Monday as the new head football coach at the University of Illinois.

The former head coach of the Chicago Bears and Tampa Bay Buccaneers receives a six-year, $21 million contract.

New Athletics Director Josh Whitman made the announcement Monday, two days after he dismissed Bill Cubit as head coach.

“I am extremely excited to be named head coach of the Fighting Illini,” Smith said. “Josh approached me about this possibility and I immediately seized on the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of the young men who are part of the program today and in the future.

“I take this responsibility very seriously and can’t wait to get a staff in place to start our move to make Illinois a contender for Big Ten titles. We will play an exciting brand of football that will make our fans, alumni, student body and members of the University community extremely proud.

Smith becomes the 25th head football coach at Illinois. He is the second coach to move directly from head coach in the NFL to Champaign-Urbana after John Mackovic took the Illini head coaching position in 1988 following a career with the Kansas City Chiefs.

“Naming Lovie Smith as the Illinois head football coach is the first step in taking this program to a place of national prominence,” Whitman said. “We will build a program that contends annually for Big Ten and national championships. The timing for this move was extremely tight, and we needed to move quickly. A coach of Lovie’s caliber would not have been available to us if we had waited until after the 2016 season. Lovie’s reputation as a coach, and even more so as a person, made it clear it was an awesome opportunity for the University of Illinois.”